What are you currently translating?

Alephi is going to celebrate the Translators around the world. We ask one small question to the Translators worldwide…

Eleni Kapetanaki studied Economics. She has been working in a bank for some years, but eventually turned to study Arabic and she has been translating into Greek since 2006. She lives in Athens and occupies herself with translations of Arabic literature and historical books.”

This is a short bio of mine. I have not referred to the books and writers I have translated up to now, but if you want to add them, I have translated Gamal al Ghitany, Naguib Mahfouz, Sahar Khalifa, Yahya Hakki, Ibrahim al Koni and the historical books of Saladin and Ibn Fadlan.

Alephi : What are you currently translating?

Eleni Kapetanaki : My current translation project is “RihlatIbnFadlan” by the 10th century Muslim traveller Ahmad IbnFadlan, whose text allows us to follow tribes and nations of the 10th century. Iranian and Turkic peoples, Bulgars of Volga, the Rus and the Khazars were the basic stops in IbnFadlan’s journey through Central Asia. He reports what he observed or heard from others, and gives us valuable information for their customs and rituals and their everyday affairs. Furthermore he describes the geography of places he crossed, rivers, cities as well as the climatic conditions of that time. The purpose of IbnFadlan’s journey was to instruct the King of Volga Bulgaria in the Islamic Faith and he was put head of the mission starting from Baghdad which was then ruled by the Commander of the Faithful, Caliph al Muqtadir.